Lessons from JH Ranch - Part 5

All of you will remember this view from the Cross from your time at the Ranch. There is nothing like being up there! I love the pile of sticks and rocks at the base of the Cross representing our sins and burdens that we are turning over to God. One other thing you might remember is the acronym G.O.D. - bracelets, necklaces, shirts etc… Do you remember what each letter stands for? The G is for gratitude, the O is for obedience and the D is for dependence. We will cover each these over the next few weeks.

G - a heart of Gratitude. How appropriate it is that we cover this one this week with the homecoming of baby Emma. What a special moment for our family all being over there this week and seeing her in her home with her family. it’s a perfect picture of gratitude to God for her journey since her birth on February 20th. Catherine and Paul do a wonderful job of chronicling that journey so I won’t even begin to try. I just want to express how grateful I know that we all are for her homecoming.

Events like this and others make life rich. They don’t happen every day and that makes them special. But the area that I want to focus on today is more on the ordinary side of life - the daily life as a Christian.

"In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I love this quote about gratitude. It points us to the many things that we should be grateful for every day that it might be easy to take for granted - none more that our own salvation. A new Christian might live with a real glow for a period of time once the realization of exactly what that means hits them. But, the newness may wear off and we may come to expect certain things from God that inhibit our ability to be truly grateful that we have been saved.

In turbulent times like we are now it is even more difficult to live daily with a heart of gratitude. We get sidetracked and caught up in the affairs of this world. Some of those affairs create fear and anxiety often which stand in the of a grateful heart. However, now more than ever we need to remember daily the promises in this verse:

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe

We are receiving a “kingdom that cannot be shaken!” That’s a great thing to remember when we allow ourselves to become absorbed with temporal issues. Our Government, economy, culture and our health can all be shaken but God’s Kingdom cannot be. As believers, we are already a part of this “unshakable Kingdom.” Remembering this each day should produce gratitude in our hearts that our “wagon” is not hitched to any of these other things.

Thank God today for your citizenship in that “unshakable Kingdom” and then go live in such a way that someone else will want to know why you have such a grateful heart.

Stay hungry,

Big E